What Is a DAC (Digital-to-Analog Converter)?
A digital-to-analog converter (also known as a DAC or a D/A converter) is an electronic circuit that converts a digital representation of a quantity into a discrete analog value. The input to the DAC is typically a digital binary code. This code, along with a known reference voltage, results in a voltage or current at the DAC’s output. The word “discrete” is very important to understand, because a DAC cannot provide a continuous-time output signal. Rather, it provides analog “steps.” The steps can be lowpass filtered to obtain a continuous signal. By increasing the resolution of the DAC, the number of discrete steps is increased and the step size is reduced (which reduces the quantization error). This operation results in a signal that closer approximates a continuous-time signal.
